


Charon

by robyn_bird



Series: how a girl becomes a wolf [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Emma doesn't know how to grieve properly, F/M, Implied flirting I guess, Post 1x07, Pre-Relationship, Season 1, does anyone in this show tho, flirting through eye contact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 11:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16174253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robyn_bird/pseuds/robyn_bird
Summary: Emma thinks she could have loved Graham, but that was neither here nor there.





	Charon

**Author's Note:**

> Set almost immediately after 1x07 and featuring terrible coping mechanisms

Gold was finding himself giving more leeway to Emma than to anyone he ever had before. He was counting on her for quite a bit and while he hoped she could at least manage most of it on her own, he supposed she might need some help to finish it. 

“Pouting doesn’t look good on you, dearie.”

He had found her wandering around town in the middle of the night, almost drunk but not quite, and caught between crying and swearing. Emma had sunken down into the seat after he had coerced her into the car and was now pouting like the child she so often acted like. 

“Oh, no, what a travesty.” She mocks, pouting even harder and sinking down lower. He sighs, but focuses on driving her home before attempting any sort of speaking. 

Gold locks the doors when Emma tries to get out of the car, looking at her sternly. Emma shrinks under his gaze, but only for a moment. Grieving and buzzed, she holds his gaze and pushes herself back up straighter. 

“There was nothing you could do.” He says firmly, and she scoffs. 

“I watched him die. There was nothing I could do? I just stood there.” 

“The universe will take the course it wants to, and no amount of interfering will change that.” 

“Is this supposed to comfort me?” She asks incredulous, her anger starting to overtake her sadness. “He was the only person in this fucking place that believed in me or thought I had any business here and I just let him die!” Emma says loudly, and he would accuse anyone else in any other situation of yelling at him but he does not, and he lets her continue. Emma shouts and goes off for a few more minutes, getting things off her chest and eventually ends up crying slightly. The alcohol in her system certainly not helping he is sure. 

“Are you finished?” He asks when she quiets, she glares at him and bares her teeth as she does. Wiping her eyes madly she’s too angry to be mortified about who she’s crying in front of.

“Yes,” she hisses, the word leaving her mouth like steam and feeling like a weight in her chest. 

“Good. Because that was a shameful display. However, of all the people to have a fit in front of I am not the worst.” He grimaces when she looks ready to start in on him again, and holds up his hand to get her to stop whatever inane thing she could think to say now. “I have been humoring you, Miss Swan, because you are interesting to me. The rest of this town is not so inclined to do the same. Perhaps the exception being Miss Blanchard, but she is a bleeding heart and offers no actual constructive criticism-“

“Constructive- On my grief?” Emma demands, her hand balled into a fist and he finds it amusing that she wants to hit him. She isn’t actually going to, he knows she won’t. She’s too much like her parents to hit him.

“Yes. Because you desperately need it.”

He double checks the doors are locked and the windows are all closed then looks at her with more intensity than she remembers seeing in him recently. She leans away from him on instinct, and he matches her by leaning forward even more. Emma feels very much like a cornered animal, her breathing increases with her heart rate and she wonders if maybe she should hit him.

“Do not ever show this emotion in front of anyone else. Regina is looking for any excuse she can to discredit you and she would absolutely jump on this. It is weakness and you cannot show weakness around her.” 

Emma looks outraged for a moment, terrified of showing weakness around him as well and how he would use this against her. But he doesn’t seem to be thinking the same thing as her, and instead he’s watching her to make sure she understands, which is a lot more than she ever expected from him. She might have only been here a few months but she didn’t ever imagine she would be (kinda) comforted by Gold in his car in the middle of the night. 

“Why are you acting so cool about this?” He snorts, worried if she thinks this is him being mellow. It is, but she doesn’t need to think that. 

“I need you to stay around for awhile, put things back in order. The town isn’t doing well, and it needs someone like you to fix it.” He leans back in his seat and is exhausted from how often he seems to be putting out fires in this fucking place. 

“You sound like Henry, he thinks I’m going to save everyone or some shit.”

“It would not do well to discredit him, Mis Swan, Henry is a smart boy.” 

“What-You believe him?” Emma asks, looking surprised and questioning. She leans forward slightly, and Gold frowns as he looks back at her. 

“I didn’t say that. But he had enough sense to steal his teacher’s credit card and find you didn’t he? And he managed to make you stay in one place for longer than a few weeks.” Gold smirks, looking amused at her, as she huffs and scowls back at him.

“It wasn’t just him,” she tries to defend herself, but he waves his hand and shakes his head. 

“You don’t need to make excuses for me, dearie, I care little for what you really do. So long as you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.” 

“And what’s the bigger picture?” She asks pointedly, making him roll his eyes, something he finds he’s doing with increasing frequency. 

“If I have to tell you then you aren’t ready for what comes after.” He says cryptically, looking her in the eye as he does. Emma barely suppresses a shiver of dread that climbs up her spine and winds it’s way around her heart. She tries to focus on something else, anything else, but the only other thing is him and she really doesn’t want to focus on him. (Unless she starts going through his glove compartment, but that is probably a surefire way to get herself killed so let’s leave that alone for now.)

“Did you really do this to make sure I got home safe and talk some sense to me?” She asks suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him. Gold scowls, he sees what she’s doing and decides that if she wants to play the game then he would. And gladly. 

He looks her in the eye for an unsettling long time, not answering her or speaking or hardly even breathing it looks like. He’s tilted toward her but not quite leaning. Emma’s breath is caught in her throat and her heart is beating erratically, loud in her ears and sure he hears it as well. Emma is almost leaning forward, almost certain she knows what he’s up to, and almost certain she wouldn’t mind. Almost certain she’s stopped thinking rationally. 

“Unless you’ve something else in mind, then yes.” He unlocks the doors and she jumps at the sudden sound, spell broken and sense coming back to her. Mortified by her train of thought, and convinced he can hear her thoughts, Emma scrambles out of the car with hardly a backward glance. 

He’d play her game. But she’d have to earn it.


End file.
